Fabu: Obama has already won
If I weren't black in America, I couldn't believe the twists and turns of the Democratic presidential primary contest. Being black, free and over 21, I'm not shocked at the Hillary Clinton campaign.
When I was a young woman voting in Tennessee, there was always primary and election fraud to keep out anyone who wasn't white. Now that I'm a mature woman voting in Wisconsin, Madison has both city and county elected women officials. Citizens here saw clearly which woman had integrity and that woman was re-elected based on that and not gender.
Sometimes, I believe lots of things have improved for people of color. The unjustified, often ludicrous attacks against Barack Obama indicate that improvements are limited and truth in campaigning is still rare.
Take the issue of color in America and continuing to label Obama as African-American. The truth is that Obama's ethnicity is the new America. Obama is a human being with a European-American mother, a Kenyan father, and an Indonesian stepfather. He is multi-ethnic, international in perspective and married to an African-American woman. As Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. proved with genealogy and DNA, most Americans are not who they racially think they are. I support Obama because of his personal integrity, proven intelligence and political prowess to do better in the world and for America than any other candidate.
Take the issue of religion in America and labeling Obama as agreeing with every word from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The truth is that there is nothing wrong with being "unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian." Have I been conscious in America and still missed when free speech and freedom of religion were taken away?
Who remembers that the church in America was the one institution where black people were free? We know that the civil rights movement came out of the church. Activists like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and their supporters testified that this movement sprang from their Christian faith, collective intelligence, intricate strategies and determined courage. When African-American people stood up against formidable white racism, oh yeah, they were "unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian." Obama took a page from the history/herstory of the black church and is now writing his part -- not his pastor's.
Take the issue of class in America and Obama representing such tremendous diversity. The truth is that this political "upstart" wins because he reflects the hearts of Americans in every crack and cranny of this country. He represents Americans who don't agree on much else except that they want action, a change in government -- not the racist, not the moneyed, not the corrupt.
I told my son, Onkendi, who also has an American mother and a Kenyan father, when he faced formidable white racism in the Madison school system, that when you stand up for yourself and your beliefs, you have already won. Barack Obama has already won.
Fabu is Madison's poet laureate and a consultant on the arts, education and African-American culture. She writes a monthly column for The Capital Times.
Fabu
